The term Fengshui, which literally means ''wind and water,'' is the ancient Chinese art of selecting an auspicious site to provide the most harmonious relationship between human and earth. The term is generally translated as "geomancy," and has had a deep and extensive impact on Korean, Chinese, and other East Asian cultures. Hong-key Yoon''s book explores the nature of geomantic principles and the culture of practicing them in Korean cultural contexts. Yoon first examines the nature and historical background of geomancy, geomantic principles for auspicious sites (houses, graves, and cities) and provides an interpretation of geomantic principles as practiced in Korea. Yoon looks at geomancy''s influence on cartography, religion and philosophy, and urban development in both Korea and China. Finally, Yoon debates the role of geomancy in the iconographical warfare between Japanese colonialism and Korean nationalism as it affected the cultural landscape of Kyongbok Palace in Seoul.
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This book provides valuable resources and should be helpful for other researchers in understanding the cultural development of Feng Shui in Korea. It should also encourage more research in this area. * Journal of Scientific Exploration *
This book is a volume of great interest for New Zealand and international, western readerships. * The New Zealand Geographical Society *
The Culture of Fengshui in Korea explores in fine detail the cultural, geographical, superstitious, religious, and scientific aspects of fengshui. To argue that it is an excellent and comprehensive study would be an understatement. * The Review of Korean Studies *
Yoon's book is important because it reminds academic geographers of the undiminished educating power - the power to make the invisible visible and the mundane significant - hat the cultural-historical perspective of the Berkeley School of geography offers. * Geographical Review *
Yoon's work puts fengshui culture in Korea into focus in the most outstanding way. . . .It is a very comprehensive work, dealing with all relevant aspects of fengshui in Korean culture, including parallels to fengshui applications in China and Japan, the origin and evolution of fengshui, its interaction with established religion and its various principles and practices. . . .The Culture of Fengshui in Korea deserves the best of recommendations as a very timely and scholarly work. * Journal of Korean Religions *
A 'Berkeley School' tour de force in the mainstream erudite traditions of cultural geographers Sauer and Glacken, the sociologist Eberhard, and the anthropologist Kroeber. Yoon systematically and successfully explores the treacherously sublime multifaceted tip of the fengshui iceberg in Korea with a requisite geographical background and training unprecedented in the massive fengshui literature. He clearly articulates his discoveries in English, making accessible to a broad academic audience the essentials of the complex fengshui cosmography and its applications, from macro-scale to micro-scale. -- David J. Nemeth, University of Toledo